No I have not read Guns, Germs, and Steel. But I do remember some of my Anthropology and history classes.
Ok counterpoint 1. Domesticating animals. There is no reason elves can’t do this. In fact the Elf quest series has elves riding domesticated wolves. Also If you can talk to the animal (which I’m sure a nature loving elf can do) it makes it much easier and faster. Of course it would be less like domesticating and more like a partnership. But it works about the same for practical purposes.
2. Slash and Burn agriculture: you need to do that IF you have a rapidly expanding population that you need to feed. Since elves have long lives and low birth rate their not going to need to expand their farm land nearly as quickly as a human city will. Also using “Eleven nature magic” (patent pending) they could get a larger harvest from the same acre then a human farmer could.
After doing some quick research it seems that some scientists believe that the Mayan’s did NOT use Slash and burn. And I think we can agree the Mayan’s were NOT a bunch of primitive tribes running though the forest.
Copied from here http://www.aaanativearts.com/article965.html
“In slash-and-burn agriculture, people clear the land to plant corn, for instance,” he said. “They get 100 percent productivity the first year, 60 percent the next year, and something less than that afterwards. So in three to five years, the land is basically useless, and they have to move on.” In a sparsely populated region, slash-and-burn agriculture might work, but Mesoamerica around 800 A.D. was one of the most densely populated areas in the pre-industrial world. “Slash and burn wouldn’t have enabled a population to grow to that size,” he said.
The author goes on to talk about using irrigation to farm land that you normally couldn’t as apposed to destroying forests to gain farm land.
I think that’s enough of me being pompous in your live journal for now. I want to thank you for opening this topic up. Its been fun playing point counter point with you.
Jane you ignorant slut.
Ok counterpoint 1. Domesticating animals. There is no reason elves can’t do this. In fact the Elf quest series has elves riding domesticated wolves. Also If you can talk to the animal (which I’m sure a nature loving elf can do) it makes it much easier and faster. Of course it would be less like domesticating and more like a partnership. But it works about the same for practical purposes.
2. Slash and Burn agriculture: you need to do that IF you have a rapidly expanding population that you need to feed. Since elves have long lives and low birth rate their not going to need to expand their farm land nearly as quickly as a human city will. Also using “Eleven nature magic” (patent pending) they could get a larger harvest from the same acre then a human farmer could.
After doing some quick research it seems that some scientists believe that the Mayan’s did NOT use Slash and burn. And I think we can agree the Mayan’s were NOT a bunch of primitive tribes running though the forest.
Copied from here http://www.aaanativearts.com/article965.html
“In slash-and-burn agriculture, people clear the land to plant corn, for instance,” he said. “They get 100 percent productivity the first year, 60 percent the next year, and something less than that afterwards. So in three to five years, the land is basically useless, and they have to move on.” In a sparsely populated region, slash-and-burn agriculture might work, but Mesoamerica around 800 A.D. was one of the most densely populated areas in the pre-industrial world. “Slash and burn wouldn’t have enabled a population to grow to that size,” he said.
The author goes on to talk about using irrigation to farm land that you normally couldn’t as apposed to destroying forests to gain farm land.
I think that’s enough of me being pompous in your live journal for now. I want to thank you for opening this topic up. Its been fun playing point counter point with you.